LEIBNIZ: ON FORTIFYING AGAINST DISSIPATION OF THE SOUL

[A VI 4, p2724]

When our soul is brought to a crossroads of thinking it is always inclined to that side where the greater objective reality is presented; but this event can be harmful to its perfection and happiness if those realities are very many and very small. This can be called dissipation of the soul, which happens when we are stupefied and is similar to a body's motion that is lost because of a blow to the mass, where the impetus is dispersed through innumerable parts of the body. And so we must fortify ourselves against this dissipation of the soul with the most constant attention to our goal, to certain general rules of truths, and to the laws of living once prescribed and made familiar to us by repeated use of thinking and acting.
It must be seen, however, whether and how it can happen that there be more or less objective reality in our mind.
There is also stupefaction of the soul when we turn around very many times by thinking in a tight circle and so seem to think about the same thing for a long time.